Riding Thread for February

[ghostrider]

Yes it's nice that Spring is coming so soon. At least glimpses of it!
Sounds like she isn't afraid of the water just doesn't like to get her feet wet. LOL

I've never had a horse that wouldn't cross water. Makes you wonder if they don't have puddles on occasion in their corral right? I've ridden with horses that totally refused, bucked, reared but would not cross water.

I'm off this week on Wed and Thurs and they predict Thurs to be upper 50's-low 60's. Got my fingers crossed.

[ghostrider]

HA! try mid to upper 30's! BRRR
Rode for about 45 minutes. Down the road and to the left past our amish neighbor's house and to the beginning of the woods. It was way too cold to be in the shadowed woods. I was getting cold in the sunshine.

Buddy was good from the time I brought the halter out to the end when he nickered at me while I was taking off his saddle. Not sure what that was about. Maybe he thought I had candy in the horn bag or in the trailer? guess I should carry some.
The only looking he did was when we turned the corner and there was three of four trees cut down and logs stacked beside the road. Something new. He wasn't spooky just looking because they were out of place there. I think the county is taking them down, there were huge orange X's on another 6-7 and someone had burned the whole inside of one hollowed tree still standing and about 30' of the shoulder was also burned on both sides.

[cyndi]

Good for you, that you got a ride in!

When Fanny was in for training in 2009, she nickered at me when I got off her. The trainer said that was a good sign...but I can't remember what she said it meant! lol Fanny still nickers once in a while when I dismount, especially if it's been a good ride for both of us.

[ghostrider]

When Buddy nickers 9 out of 10 it's food related. Because I didn't get off right away he turned his head and looked at me, that's why I think he may have thought there was a hard candy somewhere. Would be interesting to see why else a horse would nicker though.

Coming back I was hating this thread!!! it's hard to hide that I've only ridden ""3"" times this month. ROFL
Maybe I'm getting OLD...I should have ridden twice as much and I haven't even gotten out my thermals yet.

[cyndi]

I know what you mean. I had really hoped that I'd have a few more rides this month than what I have. Falling off really threw a monkey wrench into my plans, and I know it's not smart for me to get on just for the sake of being able to post in here. lol

I envy those people who can go to the barn and just saddle up and spend an hour doing 'whatever', and not having to worry about their horse acting up. Actually...do those people exist?! lol I'm sure they do, and they've put lots and lots of time into their horse. I'm working on it!!

[horsespoiler]

Cyndi, those people do exist, it's just that they are usually under the age of 20 and still have no real fear in life. When I was a kid and someone let me ride their horse I never asked how broke it was or what training it had. I just jumped on and went. In fact, the worse it behaved the more fun it might be. What was I thinking? Now we calculate the cost of a fall. Dr bills, lost work time, rehab. Suddenly that horse that rears when you try to make it back up isn't so much fun anymore. I wish I had an area I could work my horse besides the road, even if it is more of a driveway for 7 houses. I have just been too tired or too busy to do any riding when the weather is dry.

[Deleted]

It's minus 8 right now, here. I totally missed my Feb. ride. I was very determined, but dang. It's been too cold, and too slippery. I could bet you that if I tried to ride, my DH would stop me anyway. He would be worried about the footing. It's supposed to be 20 degrees above zero tomorrow, so I suppose I could just sit on her in the evening, but I doubt I will. It's just not fun out there at all. I'm super excited for spring!!!

My big goal for this year, ( and every year), is to lope without fear. I'm not afraid to lope...I'm afraid of the take off. I have someone that is going to lope both my mares for me in the spring, so that will help me feel better about it. With Angel, you tighten the reins a fair amount, move her hip inside, along with her head, and put your leg on her with a long kiss. You let up on the rein after she's collected the way you want. She's got a killer lope if you know how to ride it. If you get her bent too much she really motors into the lope. Scares me! So this year I think I'm going to ask her the way Julie Goodnight asks. I can collect her up after we are into the lope. Scratch that...I think I'll just lope her without worrying about collection until I'm comfortable.

When I first got Angel, I used to ride her every single day. I loped her every single day. I didn't know how to collect her, so I just didn't. My daughter came along and told me it looked awful, so I started down this path of wanting to be perfect and beautiful at it. I'm not going to worry about that this year. I'm just going to do it!!

[ghostrider]

nana if you're not going to show her then why not stop worrying about what she looks like and just let everything go except moving from one gait to the next.
I'm sure Buddy isn't "beautiful" when he lopes. He thinks collection is what having three open round bales is! LOL But it's so awesome to lope on him. He's smooth as butter and we go back and forth from walk to canter or trot to canter probably every single ride we take including today. He enjoys loping as much as I do although he hates to gallop, unless Boomer and Matt are trying to pass him.

cyndi, yes they exist but they own trail horses. At 20 I was more a dare devil then I am now but not because I'm afraid for me but because I've learned all the ways I was lucky I didn't kill a horse. I never thought about ice on the road or mud being too slick or riding on highways being dangerous. Teaching my horse to rear on command...I have learned that my wants do not outweigh my horses safety. Guess I grew up.

hs, when my mom came out to WY I had owned Buddy 3 or 4 years and I remember her remarking about how when I was younger I never kept a horse long enough to be able to put a kid on him. She was right, after he was broke the excitement was gone. It's not that I'm scared of riding green horses it's just that I'm finding that I enjoy going beyond the green and I enjoy seeing how far I can safely push Buddy. Every year he becomes better and better. If I ever get him beyond the plastic bag I think he'll be pretty near dead broke. Then he'll be ready to retire here and I'll start over.

[Deleted]

That's exactly what I plan to do, Denise. Thanks for the support!

I confess: Angel gets a little boring sometimes. She's so "good". I feel like I can't teach her anything. There is MUCH she could teach me if I knew how to ask. LOL. There again...lessons would be great, but really I just want to have fun.

[cyndi]

HS, I agree - most times the younger riders have no fear and just jump on and go. And while they're still school age, they can head to the barn after school and spend all the time they want in there...without having to think about planning meals and cleaning the house and going to a job, etc. lol I know that's not the scenario for all kids, but it is for a lot of them. I know a guy who worked hard on the family farm, but he spent a lot of time with his horse and she was super well-trained. That family had no tv, they lived in the middle of a community pasture (1000s of acres of pasture, bush, lakes, etc.), and there were 12 kids in the family.

Nana, I like your plan for loping It doesn't have to look pretty, but can still be a good ride. Building your confidence is more important than worrying about how you look.

I am just starting to get Fanny to lope/canter now! She tends to panic at a faster gait, even on a lunge line, but the last time I did it with her she was much more controlled. The one day that M worked with Fanny and asked her to canter, Fanny was mis-firing like crazy - her hind feet were opposite of where they should've been. She's getting better and better at it, though

GR, it's funny how our line of thinking changes over the years. I was never a daredevil, but I also never questioned the horse I was riding. The horse I rode most (who belonged to a guy I had a crush on when I was nine years old - lol) was a huge sorrel gelding. His nickname was "Stumblefoot", yet that never bothered me. We totally trusted the horses at that farm. It's the home of the guy with the well-trained horse I mentioned above.

Oh, Nana, I long for the day that Fanny is "boring"!! lol

[Deleted]

Cyndi...she can also be a snot. LOL. If she gets mad at me, she shakes her bootie and it always unnerves me. If she bucked, I'd be on mars. She has so much power in her hind end. Someone recently told me you can't fight with Hot Rodders Jet Set horses. THAT would have been good to know several years ago. LOL. I guess I've followed that rule, though, as there ain't no way I'm "fighting" with her. LOL. That being said...she has never bucked in the 8 yrs I've owned her, so I guess I should chill. Actually...she's really never done anything wrong, but she's one of those horses that doesn't give anything away. You gotta work for it.

[ghostrider]

A pic not far from our 5 acre scrub Malo was in.

Buddy bucked the first couple years I owned him, mostly he bucked when he was feeling good. It wasn't because he was being naughty he just would get the WOOPEE feeling riding with a group of other horses especially mares and when we'd start into a canter or gallop.... The next couple years he did it maybe once or twice per year just enough that you weren't 100% sure when you asked for the gallop whether he was feeling Woopee or not. LOL He hasn't bucked into a lope now in 5 or 6 years.

cyndi since I was 15 I never owned a horse that came already broke. My dad took me to an auction when I moved to WY at 15 and we picked up two unbroke ranch horses that had lived out with the cattle since born. One was supposed to be mine the other my dad was going to give his friend to break mine. I picked the bay and after seeing D spur and bronc ride the sorrel we gave him I told my dad "he wasn't touching my horse." I broke mine bareback in the rancher's arena that afternoon after D took his ride. After he quit bucking and I had him going I told them to open the gates and I rode him out and down through the Sweetwater creek. Loaded him up and took him to his new home which consisted of a 5 acre scrub fenced with barbed wire on the outside of town. I had to ride my 10 speed out to get him and ride him back to town to saddle him. I didn't have anywhere to ride except in the prairie. I can't remember ever walking home so I must not have fallen off. I actually owned him till I went to College when my dad gave him to his buddy who lived in Jackson hole on a huge ranch. But I did have a few more unbroke horses come and go during that time. Then I got into unbroke mustangs and lifes been interesting since.

[Deleted]

You sound like me as a kid, Denise. I was a small kid, so I was able to ride my pony until I was 13 or 14, but at that age I was exercising the other boarder's horses. My favorite was the county judge's horse. I still have a picture of me on her. She was awesome. I used to ride in town, up and down the streets, and then we'd go to the top of a steep hill and gallop down it then skid into the state highway. Can you say "stupid?" LOL.

Then, when I was 14 my dad bought me a unbroke 2 year old. A friend helped me break him, and it was really fun. I came off a few times, but nothing major. He was pretty sweet. I got him ready to take to the county fair, and one day someone called my dad and told him his little girl shouldn't be riding a STALLION!! Seriously....we didn't know. Isn't that the craziest thing? I laugh every time I think of it, since no one got hurt. LOL. I guess we were not too bright.

[ghostrider]

I had a stallion at about 13 too, we didn't know. I did get hurt though it could have been worse. I was building a fort out of a refrigerator box backed out of it and tripped backwards over a small stump in the ground and he reared up and attacked with both front feet. Repeatedly. When mom and dad heard the screams my dad jumped the two by four fence and came running with a spare part of a board but Sham took off and jumped the fence and went running down the road. He got stuck in a snow drift alongside the road and dad brought him home but mom said I was yelling "don't hurt my horse" the whole time.

I knew an old man named Mr.Cox who was in the buying and selling business. He butchered rabbits, sold eggs and at 12-14 he looked 90. Not sure if he was.
He would get in ponies and I'd spend all day brushing them and cutting out burrs and riding them. Most of them were not broke so it was fun to ride the buck out of them. We always did that bareback too. Of course Mr. Cox got green broke nicer looking ponies then that he'd sell and replace with wild unkept ones. My mom never knew and we never told her till I was much older but dad knew he would go down and talk to Mr. Cox sometimes. One of my friends who was a foster girl of the people across the road used to go with me a lot too. I don't know why we never told mom except she's always been scared to death of horses/ponies and if it weren't for my dad I probably wouldn't have ever owned one.

nana we do sound a lot alike as kids.

[cyndi]

Nana, there is a line of Canadian Horse that is known to be rather "hot", and high spirited. They are the ones who will dump you and seem to take pleasure in it. lol Thankfully, there are numerous other lines that are much more mellow. Fanny's dam comes from a line called Henryville (pronounced ON ray vill) - it's French, and they are the most well known for being gentle. Whew!! lol

Nana and GR, you two were amazing, fearless kids!!! GR, even at your young age you knew that you didn't want your dad's friend to train your horse. Good for you!!

I can remember being amongst my uncles's horses at our farm. We had absolutely no fear. We'd walk around in there practically barefoot and not worry about being stepped on or anything. My uncle's mare had a filly and I must've been about six or seven when she was born. When she was old enough, we used to hang on around her neck, and wrap our legs around her neck as well, and let her carry us around like that! There were times she's spook and back up, but all we did was drop off and then do it again.

When I was in my early teens we no longer had horses at our place, but friends of ours had their horses at my uncle's, which was just down the road (his horses were at our place until he got his own farm). A good friend of ours (one I'd mentioned that had 11 siblings) rode his perfect mare to our place one day (I can't imagine how long it took him) and we walked over to my uncle's and he saddled up one of the boarded horses for me to ride. My brother was with our friend, riding double, and I was on "Mac", a pinto. We were walking down a dirt road and decided to canter. Mac took off and wouldn't stop! I was looking back at my brother and friend, screaming, but the little mare couldn't keep up with Mac, since she had two kids on her. I finally ended up doing a one-rein stop (which I did by instinct because back then I didn't know such a thing existed). That put some fear in me...for a while. Once we got back to our farm, I traded horses with our friend and got to gallop across a field on his perfect little mare. I loved it. I had no reason to fear her, so I trusted her fully and enjoyed the experience. Our friend said he loved Mac's gallop, and said it was much smoother than his mare's. I wasn't convinced. lol

My mom is terrified of horses, but she trusts Fanny and will hold onto Fanny's lead line for a photo, but it is a little out of her comfort zone. When she was nine years old she was riding a horse to the barn at school (yes, she went to a little country school house in the prairies) and it bolted for the barn. The doorway was really low, so Mom bailed into a snowbank, which probably saved her life. Since then she has been afraid of horses. Mom will say how much she likes Fanny, but if I said that I was selling her and not buying another horse, Mom would be the first to encourage me to do so.